SparkNotes: Confessions: Quiz

According to Augustine, God is in all things:

(A) in equal proportions

(B) in different amounts

(C) as a whole in each thing

(D) only if they are not evil

Before the soul enters the body at birth, where is it?

(A) with God

(B) Augustine does not say

(C) everywhere

(D) it does not yet exist

Augustine gives his boyhood teachers credit for:

(A) teaching him to read and write

(B) nothing

(C) introducing him to fiction

(D) teaching him to think philosophically

The motive for Augustine's theft of the pears was:

(A) peer pressure

(B) the desire to be like God

(C) the desire to do wrong

(D) all of the above

Patrick sends Augustine to Carthage for further studies so that he can:

(A) have a successful career

(B) find a proper wife

(C) attend Ambrose's church

(D) pursue the truth

God speaks to the young Augustine:

(A) through the prophet Mani

(B) through Aristotle

(C) through Monica

(D) through Nebridius

Cicero's Hortensius argues that:

(A) God is a spiritual substance

(B) philosophy is dangerous

(C) evil does not exist

(D) philosophy is the key to a good life

On first reading the Bible, Augustine is turned off by its:

(A) conflict with Manichee beliefs

(B) simple style

(C) esoteric nature

(D) loquacity

Manicheans believed that evil:

(A) does not exist

(B) is as powerful as God

(C) is a result of free will

(D) is limited to non-Manicheans

Spiritual substance:

(A) has no spatial qualities

(B) has infinite size

(C) has no real existence

(D) contains the universe

Manicheans found the Old Testament unethical in part because:

(A) it does not mention Mani

(B) it refers to Christ as God

(C) it gives a false account of evil

(D) it seems to endorse polygamy

According to Augustine, God's law:

(A) changes over time

(B) reveals itself in stages

(C) cannot be known

(D) changes with context

Augustine's son is named:

(A) Alypius

(B) Verecundus

(C) Adeodatus

(D) Simplicianus

For Augustine, astrology is:

(A) bogus

(B) a form of prophecy

(C) useful as a teaching tool

(D) more than just chance, but not a form of prophecy

Augustine leaves Thagaste a second time because:

(A) his friend has died

(B) he misses Carthage

(C) he is restless

(D) he wants to be baptized

The Confessions take the form of:

(A) a letter to Monica

(B) an apology to the church

(C) an address to humanity

(D) an address to God

Augustine retracts what opinion from his early work On the Beautiful and the Fitting?

(A) Christ was just a man

(B) evil is due to free will

(C) the mind is God

(D) everything exists in God

Augustine responds to his meeting with Faustus by:

(A) becoming a Manichean

(B) doubting Manichee doctrine

(C) seeking a new teacher

(D) converting to Catholicism

Ambrose advises Augustine:

(A) to read the Bible figuratively

(B) to ignore rhetoric

(C) to marry

(D) to picture God as a kind of light

While first learning about Catholicism in earnest, Augustine is attracted by its:

(A) logical arguments

(B) emphasis on the concept of spiritual substance

(C) refusal to offer proof of its statements

(D) anti-Manichee polemics

Augustine agrees to get engaged because:

(A) he has lost his concubine

(B) Alypius advises him to

(C) Ambrose advises him to

(D) it will help his career

Augustine takes the child's voice he hears in the Milan garden to mean:

(A) that he should convert

(B) that he is a sinner

(C) that he should consult the Bible

(D) that he is not yet truly humble

Augustine and Monica begin their joint vision by reflecting on:

(A) prayer

(B) heaven

(C) Genesis

(D) time

Augustine's idea of memory is inspired by:

(A) Plato

(B) Aristotle

(C) Cicero

(D) Ambrose

God's creation of the universe takes place:

(A) in a day

(B) before time began

(C) after time began

(D) eternally

According to Augustine, Christ is also:

(A) the Soul

(B) the Word

(C) the Mind

(D) all of the above

Augustine suggests that time is which kind of quality of the soul?

(A) a gap

(B) a sin

(C) a division

(D) a stretching

The four kinds of memory are:

(A) skills, ideas, sensory images, and emotions

(B) beautiful, evil, material, and spiritual

(C) skills, ideas, sensory images, and information

(D) beautiful, practical, material, and spiritual

According to Augustine, time is always tending toward:

(A) non-being

(B) eternity

(C) multiplicity

(D) evil